Science policy news

Menu

Science Funding

This week, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, declared that the biomedical research funding agency no longer plans to implement the controversial Grant Support Index. Instead, Collins and Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the NIH, announced that the agency will launch the Next Generation of Researchers Initiative to support early…

This week, the U.S. House Science, Space, & Technology subcommittee on research and technology held a hearing on the overhead cost of research being funded by agencies, including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. Witnesses included: Dale Bell, division director of institution and award support at NSF; John Neumann, director of…

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing titled “Federally Funded Cancer Research: Coordination and Innovation.” At this hearing, the committee heard testimony from Tammi Carr, mother of Chad Carr, who passed away from a rare brain tumor at the age of 4. Tammi Carr founded the ChadTough foundation, raising…

President Donald Trump released his first budget proposal on Thursday. Included in that proposal is a $5.8 billion cut in funding for the National Institutes of Health. Benjamin Corb, director of public affairs for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has provided the following statement in response to the proposal: A $6 billion…

As the new administration gets settled and sets its priorities, President Donald Trump and Congress presumably will be assessing how taxpayer dollars can be best utilized. In the coming month, Trump will begin to not only introduce a budget for the upcoming fiscal year but also push for specific initiatives that will require some…

The 115th Congress has begun its legislative work, and we’re five days into the presidency of Donald Trump. To say that Washington, D.C., is active in these early days of 2017 is an understatement. The focus of political leaders is not – shockingly – how to handle biomedical research and science policy over the next…

Presidential appointees help prioritize U.S. research goals by advising the sitting president on current and future scientific issues. In fiscal 2016, the federal government provided a projected $137.6 billion in support for research and development , $33 billion of which went to basic research. To date, president-elect Trump has identified 17 of 21 key…

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held a congressional briefing Tuesday about the effects that a long-term continuing resolution would have on the biomedical research community. Speakers included Harry Stein, director of fiscal policy at the Center for American Progress; Thomas Baldwin, president-elect of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology…

Congress returned to work last week after its summer recess. In the next month, Congress’ main priority will be to approve funding for the federal government in fiscal 2017. Congress’ inability to pass the 12 separate annual appropriation spending bills has resulted in it needing to approve a temporary spending bill, or continuing resolution,…

Congress reconvened Tuesday and will remain in session for four weeks. We expect that lawmakers will pass a continuing resolution to fund the government at least into December. If, by the off chance, lawmakers do not pass a continuing resolution and instead proceed to resolve their differences to pass an actual appropriations bill, we…